Vitamins Enjoy Healthy Growth : Studies Backing Their Benefits Pushed ’93 Sales to Nearly $4 Billion
Michele Adams was strolling through a vitamin company’s display booth at a tradeshow in Anaheim last week, searching for products to boost sales at her co-op food market in Corvallis, Ore.
Vitamin sales have skyrocketed in the past year at First Alternative Co-Op, which plans to open its second store soon with an expanded vitamin section. “Customers generally want what fights illness,” said Adams, a buyer for the market. “And people with heart problems want the antioxidants.”
As researchers begin to validate the health benefits of vitamins and other dietary supplements, consumers are rushing to buy them: They purchased nearly $4 billion worth last year. Sales of Vitamin E, an antioxidant (meaning it slows the oxidation of oils and fats), totaled $125.4 million for the 12 months ended Jan. 31, up 37% from a year earlier. Sales of Vitamin A and beta carotene rose 33% to $22.7 million during the same period. And sales of Vitamin C were up 11% to $120.1 million, according to Towne-Oller & Associates, a unit of Information Resources Inc.
Industry observers say sales have been driven by several large studies suggesting that antioxidants--particularly Vitamins E, C and beta carotene--can help lower the risk of developing various illnesses, from heart disease to cancer to cataracts. Although millions of health-conscious Americans have been taking their One-A-Days and other vitamins for years, the widely publicized studies have sent millions more to pharmacies, health food stores and supermarkets. Some new customers are acting on the advice of their doctors, although many experts are cautioning that the studies are not definitive.
“Sales have been very good because many of the doctors are using antioxidants themselves and are prescribing them for their patients,” said Bernie Bubman, co-founder of Great Earth Vitamin Stores, a Los Angeles-based chain. “Consumers have heard the word antioxidant now, whereas two years ago they didn’t know whether it was good or bad for you.”
To capitalize on this publicity, big pharmaceutical manufacturers and small vitamin makers have been scurrying to market antioxidant supplements in various forms, from gel capsules to chocolate-flavored beverages.
Pharmavite Corp., a vitamin manufacturer based in Mission Hills, was one of the first companies to begin selling an all-antioxidant formula, in June, 1992. Its Nature Made Antioxidant Formula combines Vitamins E, C and beta carotene in a gel capsule.
“People are starting to take more vitamins in higher potencies,” said Frank Sajovic, Pharmavite’s vice president of marketing. “As people read more about the value of vitamins, the tendency is to take more of them.”
At General Nutrition Centers Inc., a big Pittsburgh-based chain of health food stores, overall vitamin sales rose 12% last year, and a similar increase is expected this year, said Robert Dunn, director of regulatory and legislative affairs for the company.
With health reform in the national spotlight, Dunn says, vitamin sales are getting another boost. “In any health reform package, there will be some emphasis on alternative types of medicine that are less expensive,” he said. “Part of that will be determining whether you can enhance your well ness by taking nutritional supplements.”
Although cheered by healthy sales, the dietary supplement industry continues to protest loudly about proposed Food and Drug Administration regulations that it considers as distasteful as castor oil.
The issue involves the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990, in which Congress authorized the FDA to regulate health claims for food and dietary supplements. The law would require that labels on dietary supplements, such as vitamins and minerals, include accurate nutritional information. It would also prohibit suppliers from making any health claims on their labels unless the FDA determined that such claims were “scientifically valid.”
Some in the industry have waged a high-profile lobbying campaign against the law, contending that it would restrict consumer access to products and scientific information about their health benefits.
John Gleason, senior staff attorney for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group that supports the new FDA rules, said most dietary supplement firms make no wild claims about their products and should not be significantly affected by the new rule. Some of the bigger vitamin companies have stayed out of the battle in Washington because they believe the FDA rule will clean up the industry’s bad eggs and improve its image.
“The real issue in all this ruckus has not been raised by the antioxidant claims,” Gleason said, “but by the hundreds of companies that are selling snake oils,” such as products that claim to enhance memory, prevent baldness or cure AIDS. He cited one example of a product called Happy Camper that promises to make consumers “feel like a kid again.”
Still, industry experts caution that the jury is still out on the benefits of antioxidants in preventing illness. As is often the case with scientific research, ongoing studies about antioxidants could draw different conclusions from the earlier research.
“It could be that nutrients that currently appear to be promising may prove not to pan out,” said Dr. Matthew P. Longnecker, an assistant professor of epidemiology at UCLA’s School of Public Health, who has studied Vitamin E and colorectal cancer.
